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Chapter 17

The Final Countdown

AS THE DAY OF THE EXAM DRAWS NEAR…

As examination day draws near, you will start to enter the final phase of your preparation. In this chapter, I will describe the entire process of how you can put yourself into an optimal state of preparedness for the examinations using the concepts covered earlier.

By this time, you should have prepared Mind Maps® of all your relevant study materials and compiled a list of the different types of application questions and steps to solve them (see Chapter 11). You should have also completed all assignments, projects and tests and analysed the mistakes made in them. The final preparation should comprise a revision of everything that you have covered, rather than a first time study of the material. It should not be your first effort at grappling with the material.

YOUR OBJECTIVE IS UNCONSCIOUS COMPETENCE

How is it that there are ‘A’ scorers, students who can complete their examination papers with time to spare and score ‘A’s while others simply run out of time? The answer lies in the difference in the level of competence that the two groups of students study to. Students who always run out of time merely study to a stage where they understand the subject, but are not adept or skilled at it. They still need time to think about and analyse a test question before answering it. This stage is known as the level of conscious competence.

Chapter 17 • The Final Countdown

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